Arch Coal third-quarter earnings $50.9 mln vs $18.9 mln

MichaelBaron

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Arch Coal Inc.
ACI, +1.51%
Friday reported third-quarter earnings of $50.9 million, or 35 cents a share, up from a year-ago profit of $18.9 million, or 13 cents a share. Revenue slid in the latest three months to $610 million from $654.7 million in the same period a year earlier. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call was for a profit of 40 cents a share in the September period on revenue of $671.3 million. The company said its operations in the latest quarter were affected by three scheduled longwall moves, continuing rail challenges, and general weaker pricing conditions. Looking ahead, Arch said it now sees earnings of $1.60 to $1.70 per share for 2006 on a post-split basis with sales volume of between 125 million and 130 million tons. This view excludes about 8 million pass-through tons related to certain legacy contracts. Wall Street's current consensus estimate is for earnings of $1.97 a share for the year. The stock closed Thursday at $34.26, up 8.5%.

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